


Never Tear Us Apart

by blowinduck



Series: Rush minific Series [18]
Category: Formula 1 RPF, Rush (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Launt, M/M, Not chronological order, WW2 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-05-23 20:06:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6128599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blowinduck/pseuds/blowinduck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niki Lauda has gone many miles, known things, and seen things throughout his many lives. Everything is different and never the same but one constant: James.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Snow

**Author's Note:**

> This one is set on an AU where Niki and James have met in past lives over and over, but Niki is the only one of the two who remembers. In those past lives, for different reasons, their relationship hadn’t ended well.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snow falls again outside the window, enveloping a different landscape in the same white veil but Niki has learned, after all those lives...and he's ready to not let James go away.
> 
> Not this time

  
Niki is in the living room, his fingers tapping restlessly on his knee as he waits for the house to empty.

He had driven like a madman across the London streets to see James, to finally say what he should have said all those times ago, but as soon as the door was opened for him, he found the house full of Hunts and he couldn’t decline the invite to stay to dinner.

In his haste he had totally forgotten today is Christmas Eve.

He lets himself fall on the couch, listening to the house creak until he hears the last of laughter die away behind the main door and James' steps echo on the suddenly empty house.

Niki stands up, passing a hand through his hair and trying not to panic.

After everything he had rehearsed to say, words seemed to have abandoned his lips. A creak on the floorboards makes him turn, his gaze meet a pair of very deep blue eyes and it all comes to him again, quickly and vividly.

Memories of nights with the sky of the same deep blue, his tongue tasting of sand and cinnamon as he trails it down against skin as hot as the desert; of smoke twirling in front of his eyes, taking hues of blue down the fluorescent lights of a dingy pub as his nights are filled with music and joy under the ever-present threat of an upcoming war; of far-away lands as the snow falls and covers everything in deep slumber before his amazed eyes.

Memories of joy and pain and loss returning to him throughout the centuries and the knowledge of how there’s always been a constant, undeniable and certain in its simplicity as his soul always goes back to this exact moment: where he stands before a pair of navy eyes that shine in its deepness, and he finds himself as speechless as the first time.

Snow falls again outside the window, enveloping a different landscape in the same white veil but Niki has learned, after all those lives...and he's ready to not let James go away.

Not this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi,  
> This again was supposed to be sketches of a bigger fic I was planning to do (but never did). This has three more "parts" (ficlets) I wrote and I'll post them as chapters on the following weeks.  
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Mind (1933–1940)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He had been wandering aimlessly one night when the sound of music had made him turn a corner. He found himself going down the stairs to a club in the basement of an old house. There, between dim fluorescent light, cigarette smoke, and people dancing, he saw him again...
> 
> James

He met him again inside a dingy club on his first week in London.

He, like many others, had gone out of Germany when Hitler and the Nazi Party had begun to implement their 'good' ideas to get Germany back to its glory. He had seen the alarming extent of the extremism and the hidden oppression behind those ideas; his body could be young, but his mind was as old as humankind and he recognized the imminent war that approached furtively, hanging heavily over everyone's head.

He had been wandering aimlessly one night when the sound of music had made him turn a corner. He found himself going down the stairs to a club in the basement of an old house. There, between dim fluorescent light, cigarette smoke, and people dancing, he saw _him_ again.

_James_

It was _him_  —how could he ever mistake him?—, his blond hair was bit longer than the normal length at the time, the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to his elbows, and he gave a quick drag to a roll-up before he lifted a shiny trumpet and his world narrowed to him and the bewitching sound of the instrument, dancing and twirling through the air.

As much as he tried, he couldn’t keep his distance and before the sun painted the sky with the soft colours of dawn, they had already been talking between songs, the easy familiarity already putting soft smiles on their faces.

Niki this time was cautious. As the centuries had passed, love between people of the same gender had went from something 'normal' to being nothing short of a sickness or a sin. People kept being arrested every day for charges of 'sodomy' and he didn’t know how this James would react. He did his best to be nothing but friends with him. Yet, after some months of knowing each other, James had pushed Niki against a wall in a dark corner of the club and had kissed him; the taste of fresh tobacco and alcohol mingling with the delicate scent of James as Niki's blood thrummed with the upbeat rhythm of the bass.

From that night on everything had been nice, to Niki's weary surprise. They already shared a nice flat in central London, so the only change was that James' bed had gotten a thick layer of dust on. Their lives kept almost the same: Niki worked on a mechanic's during the days and met James at the club during the nights; his life filled with music and soft murmurs in the dead of night…

Then Germany invaded Poland and two days later the UK and France had declared war.

He had been buying himself some quick lunch when the news came through the wireless; the chips in his mouth had lost their flavour and it had been a real struggle to remain in the mechanic's until his shift ended.

The streets were almost deserted, his steps echoing as he made his way to the club. When he arrived, he found only the staff and some regulars there; there was no music, no laughter, the blue of the lights even appeared dim to his eyes as he crossed the room to James. His deep navy eyes met his gaze once and he stood, heading silently to the back of the stage, Niki following some steps behind.

It was only until Niki had closed the door of the adjacent room normally used for storage when James turned to face him. His mouth was pressed in a thin line, his shoulders had been tense all the way there but they sagged. A heartbeat later he was pulling Niki in an embrace, holding him tight and pressing his face to the side of his neck.

"We are at war," James said against Niki's skin.

"I know," Niki sighed, closing his eyes; dread heaving his heart.

He knew the words before James uttered them. It was pure cosmic irony, really, that the same war that had brought them together was the one that was pulling them apart.

"I'll have to enlist by the end of the week," the words sounded heavy to his ears, James still not letting Niki go. He was glad to know he wasn’t the only one finding it difficult to be apart. "then I’ll be off to war…"

How different this James sounded when facing war. Niki remembered the sheer enthusiasm and foolish optimism that had made James' navy eyes dance back then when they both had met at Jerusalem's walls, all those centuries back. Perhaps even if he didn't consciously, his soul might remember some of the cruelty of war they both had experienced in those hot and faraway lands.

James loosened the embrace enough to look Niki in the eye. There was something between the layers of blue, something desperate, almost pleading that had Niki take his hand and lead them all the way back to their flat.

There he had spared one last look at those familiar eyes before he had pulled James down for a kiss; making his best to fully memorize James in both his body and mind, kisses and soft caresses a silent plea for James to come back safely, to come back to him.

When James had finally gone to the coast in a train full of soldiers, Niki did his best to make his bit for the cause. He couldn’t have enlisted, as much as he had wanted, both his illegal immigrant status and his German nationality would have only served to send him back to the Fatherland. However, the months passed and the news from the French front weren't at all promising.

It was a week after all the rescued from Dunkirk arrived on English soil that the list of the people 'missing in action' was published. The city had been a right chaos, the usual since the war had begun. He made his way through it to go see the list outside one of the still working hospitals after the first bombings. Despite it not being the first time, Niki had to keep his composure until he found a safe corner to turn and throw up viciously without unwanted attention.

James, despite having reached the port of Dunkirk, had died due to wound infection the night before the help finally got there.

Niki wondered, not for the first time, with his heart broken, if it was always going to end like this for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all,  
> Sorry for taking so long to post this, but LIFE striked again.  
> After some deliberations, I decided the chapters of this won't be in chronological order, to spice things up; but don't fret! the year(s) in which each fic takes place will always be mentioned in the title.  
> Also I want to thank everyone who's been leaving kudos/comments in all my fics. Seriously, they help so much and keep me motivated c:  
> Thank you!


End file.
